Voice of Greece - Final Transmission: June 15, 2022
/Live off-air recording of the final two hours of the shortwave transmissions of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation's (ERT's) Voice of Greece (I Foni tis Elladas) on 15 June 2022 on a frequency of 9420 kHz. Also known as ERA 5, the Voice of Greece broadcast its programs from Avlis about 50 km north-east of Athens using a transmitter with a registered power of 150 kW with an antenna beam of 323° towards western Europe. Avlis had a large transmitting complex with multiple transmitters and antennas but at the end of its service was reduced to just one operational transmitter.
The Voice of Greece continues to be available via Internet streaming and satellite.
The recording, all in Greek, starts with a time check, the beginning of the Voice of Greece interval (tuning) signal with station identification. Then follows two programs. The first program is Fones kai Mousikes tis Ellinikis Kardias (Voices and Sounds of the Greek Heart). It features an interview with singer Natalia Soledad Petsalis from Buenos Aires. At just after 16:00 UTC, there is news from ERA 1, the Proto Programma network, before returning to Voice of Greece programming. The second program is Kales Thallasses (Good Seas) and includes an interview with retired ship captain Georgios Mavrakis. Captain Mavrakis recounts how during his 30 years of service as a sailor, the broadcasts of the Voice of Greece kept him company at sea. At the end of the recording, there is the short interval signal and identification of the Voice of Greece just before the transmitter leaves the air.
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in synchronous AM mode with 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception of the broadcast was good with some fading at times and with some slight co-channel interference from a Chinese transmitter especially after 16:00 UTC.